Author's Note:
Chapters 2 and 3 will be updated according to this order:
Team M - Team R - Team C
[M] INSERTION [2]
Marshall was definitely right when he had the thought that he would not wake up back at the lookout on Adventure Bay. However, he did not expect waking up somewhere that did not look like a prison cell.
In fact, it didn't even have the appearance of an evil and dangerous lair. He left the world of dreaming laying down on a wooden parquet floor. The floor was so polished, that he could see his reflection. His fur looked just like if it had been brushed recently. The Dalmatian took a look at his left front paw once he noticed that something was wrapped on it. It looked like a crimson red wristband, or rather a wrist clock, but the display was completely black.
The spotty dog looked up. Marshall and the other pups, who were already awake, had been taken to a wide corridor with polished, porcelain-like walls, decorated with white marble columns, with sea greenish marble ornaments at the ends of them. Small wooden cabinets, and lamps with golden ornaments, were attached to both sides of the walls. There were also metallic plates with huge bolts around them, presumably to block out the windows.
Skye and Tracker, who were also gazing around, approached Marshall, wondering where were they.
Marshall moved his lips in a confused manner. "No idea. How come we've been inside a prison cell, and now we wake up in a luxury hotel hallway?"
"It is strange, but I could live here!" Skye was very pleased with such a beautiful corridor, despite the fact we didn't see anyone cross it, or explore it in depth. "Well, not with this, though. It gets uncomfortable..."
The Dalmatian wasn't the one who had a bracelet on his left paw. Tracker had a deep stare at her crimson wrist clock, which was keeping the Cockapoo from dreaming on living a nice luxury life.
"Just what are these for?" said Marshall, showing his wristband, as well as Tracker's. "We didn't have this when we woke up..."
"I guess they are meant for The Game that Y was talking about." Everyone agreed to Tracker's deductions. Just then he noticed. "Hey, there are buttons on the sides." He tried to push the buttons from his bracelet with his paws, but it didn't seem to do anything.
Silence, for a few seconds, governed the entire hallway, which seemed strange for such a luxurious interior. Although without a previous warning, a screeching static sound reverberated each one of the pups' ears. While quickly twitching their ears to detect where it was coming from, every pup turned directly at the origin of the sound.
Hidden by a column, there was a closet door, which was open, with a TV screen, which was displaying a static noise, like those on old televisions. When the trio of pups got closer to it, the image suddenly changed, showing the dark gown covering the person who kidnapped them. However, the theatrical mask that the blackened figure was wearing before was replaced with a sad one.
"It appears you have awaken." Said Y, with the same screeching, distorted voice. "Time to explain the rules to you."
"Y...!" Said everyone in unison.
But first, the perpetrator mentioned they had to make some things clear.
"Asking questions to me will be worth nothing but a waste of time. This is a recording, being broadcasted to all of the dogs within this facility."
Skye was about to ask where were the rest of the pups, but retracted almost immediately when she heard that. Now that the kidnapper clarified that first thing, they announced that they would detail a fragment of the story that the puppies heard back at the prison cells.
"July 19th, 2013, it was a rainy day. A man was getting home from work. His usual route led him to a fork in the road within a park. Normally, he'd go through the left path, but for some reason, he chose the right path that day. Along the way, he bumped into a woman who happened to be a coworker.
Surprised to see him, she asked: 'Why did you come this way today'?
The man showed her what was hiding under his coat. It was a small puppy, with bloody stains from gunshot wounds. It was clear the puppy was in peril, so he decided to head towards the closest vet in the neighborhood."
There was a short silence, until the voice of Y grew deeper and resonated the same words again. "His body was found two hours and four minutes later. Murdered. They found him behind some bushes along the right path of the park. Sometimes, life is simply unfair..."
Marshall had a strange, awkward feeling, like a tingle, itching through his fur. But he didn't pay too much attention to it. However, that story did strike him as rather odd.
"What... are you implying with this story?"
Even though Y couldn't answer questions, his following lines seemed to have some sort of predicted Marshall's interrogative and reply to it seemingly naturally.
"It's the same for all of you puppies. The pull of an unjust fate carried you along to this precise moment. Only to find yourselves in this underground facility, 30 meters below ground..."
The screen showed up a complex map with many rooms intricately networked by what looked like meandering hallways. It was so distorted in shape that it felt like a ruined spider web lair of some sort.
"As you can probably see from where you are, you have been divided into three groups of three dogs." Y explained that the groups were distributed as follows:
Marshall, Skye and Tracker were the now named Team M. The leader of the group would be Marshall, as hinted by the initial of the team. The team was given red-colored bracelets.
Rocky, Zuma and Robo were Team R, with Rocky being the leader. Team R was given green-colored bracelets.
Finally, Chase, Rubble and Everest had been associated the name Team C. The color of the bracelets from this team was blue.
"Speaking of the bracelets, there are some important things to mention about them. As of now, each of everyone's bracelets is inactive. You will need to activate them by using a circle scanner that can be found near your TV screen. Simply pass your paws over the reader to enable their functions. This is very important for The Game to happen."
The screen switched again, showing a schematic of a bracelet similar to those Team M wear, but yellow-colored.
"Once activated, you can press the two buttons on its sides simultaneously for an arrow to be displayed. This arrow will serve you as a guide to where you will have to go next. Consider it as a compass."
Skye turned around, looking for that scanner nearby, although she was still capable of listening to the explanations of Y's doomed Game rules.
"The bracelets are absolutely necessary to enter the Numbered Doors. As of now, you probably haven't seen any. They just look like any regular door, but they present a colored number splattered on them. Near these doors, you will find the devices called Bracelet Authentication Devices, or BREAD, for short. You must scan your paws over these devices in order to activate the X-Paws Input Device beside the BREAD. The Numbered Door will not open unless you enter the same amount of X-Pawsses as the number painted on the door."
"X-Pawsses? Sounds like a very bad English pun." Said Tracker, with a short giggle.
However, the voice of the masked man suddenly turned even darker after the next sentence.
"Each time one of you puppies is unable to continue the Game, the bracelet will automatically disengage and an X-Pawss will be revealed. In blunter terms, there will be an X-Pawss for each dead puppy."
Skye deeply gasped, shutting her eyes, trying to ignore what she said. The shocked Chihuahua clenched his teeth in fear. Marshall sat down, with a short, nauseous gag. They knew the X-Pawsses would be necessary to continue with the game, but they never thought it'd work in such a bloody way. They didn't want to accept leaving puppies behind to their demise, in order for them to-
"It is hidden, but an exit can be found. Seek a way out... Seek a door that carries a [6]. This obviously means that, at least, six of you must die in order to open the door that connects to the exit of this facility."
Marshall tried to do the math out of all this nonsense. Since the [6] door, which hides the exit behind it, has the number [6] on it, that means that it is a Numbered Door. Those doors won't open unless the same amount of X-Pawsses as the number imprinted on said door are entered. X-Pawsses would be revealed each time a dog is deceased, which meant...
In order to open the Numbered Door emblazoned with the number [6] containing the exit, six of the 9 puppies had to die. There was no denying on that.
"There's a few things to mention about their interaction with the bracelets, as well. Each Numbered Door will only remain open for 24 seconds. Once that time passed, the Numbered Doors will automatically close. By then, any puppy that did not authenticate on the BREAD, but managed to pass through it, the injectors hidden within their bracelet will automatically trigger. The trespasser will be penalized by an injection of an aqueous solution of mercuric chloride. Once that happens, the digestive tract will collapse due to the poison, killing you in about 23 minutes."
"What..." Marshall was stunned, but if he were to understand the rules of the Game, that would have probably meant "don't you ever try to cheat!", or something of the sort. Although he did know about the existence of such poison.
"Also, don't expect the Numbered Doors from opening again. Once they close, they will remain locked until those who have last opened the door authenticate in the Door Unlocking Device, or DUD. Only then the rest will be able to open said door."
Tracker tilted his head in confusion. What implications did that last rule have? He thought it wasn't that necessary, considering they were separated.
"I believe that concludes the rules explanations." When Marshall was about to give a question, Y brought up something he mentioned a while ago. "Remember that I can't answer your questions."
"Dang it... Says this man can't answer our questions but talks just like he could heard us..." Marshall was starting to lose his patience.
However, despite Y having explained the rules, he added one more last thing to his explanations:
"Sometimes, you will encounter different challenges. Only fate will only decide whether if you overcome it... Or not. With that... I wish you... Good luck."
Y waved goodbye, with a "Have a nice escape". Marshall hit the screen hard with one of his back paws, but it did nothing but switch the image to static again. "Rrrrargh! I HATE that guy!"
Suddenly, a feminine voice could be heard from the right end of the hallway. It was the Cockapoo's. "Pups, come over here! I think I found the bracelet device thingy!"
Both the Chihuahua and the Dalmatian sprinted towards where Skye was. She wasn't that far away so they got over there in less than a minute. The female puppy was looking at a slightly smaller than her head strange kind of device. When she placed her paws for closer inspection, a long, rather annoying beep could be heard from Skye's bracelet.
"Oh...! I think it booted up..." Indeed, it displayed an arrow pointing towards the other end of the hallway. "So that's where we should be heading next..."
Marshall was going to go straight ahead towards that direction, but a patient Tracker managed to hold him steady by grabbing his collar.
"Espera! We should activate our bracelets, too. Otherwise we won't be able to use the other devices." He jiggled, as he took Marshall's left paw with his left paw, and touched the reader, thus activating their respective wristband gadgets simultaneously.
Now, all of the bracelets were displaying an arrow pointing towards the other end of the hallway.
"So this is the way to the first Numbered Door?" asked Marshall.
Skye shrugged, but she shared her opinion anyway. "Well, it would be quite pointless if it showed a way directly to the exit, without all these Numbered Doors mess. Besides, we need to open those with our bracelets."
"What are we waiting for, then?" Tracker was already on its way.
The hallway didn't seem to be long at first, but after one minute of trotting, it started feeling tiring. To make it more of a bliss, Skye shared her thoughts about the situation.
"Do you guys think is there going to be a [0] door?"
None of them stopped; Marshall decided to answer with another question. "Why would you think there would be a door with a number [0]?"
The hybrid breed dog kept trotting as she talked. "Because I can't believe Y is going to kill anyone of us so soon. If I were them, I would think that'd be unfair for the... Game."
"You have such a crazy imagination..." This time Marshall did stop, twitching an eye, grossed out.
"Ugh, did you really think I don't have the right to try and think like the one who wants to kill us!?" She stopped along him, raising a paw as a warning call. "I was trying to be positive! Otherwise, tell me a reason why I shouldn't do it."
"Uh, cachorros, there is one." Tracker cut through the argument with just one yell.
"Oh yeah, tell us, then." Skye got very annoyed by the fact that Marshall could be distrusting her, she was clenching her teeth.
"No, I mean, a door number [0]. There is one."
Both pups that weren't beside the door ran towards the end of the hallway. One turn to the right at the corner and... There it was.
A big, double, metallic gray door, emblazoned with red paint, that almost looked like blood. Its presence was already sinister enough with the lack of lights, but the number that covered the doors made it feel even more nerve-wrecking, yet still relaxing to some point.
[0]. That meant that zero X-Pawsses were required to open this door. Which meant that nobody had to die in order for this door to open.
Tracker was gazing to the left of the door, where a mysterious, old-navy styled device was bolted tight onto the wall. All dogs could easily identify this device because of the bread decoration on top of the switch.
"So this must be the BREAD..." said Skye. "Well, should we open it?"
Marshall pushed the two buttons on his wrist watch gadget. For some reason, it started beeping, and instead of displaying an arrow, a circle started blinking. Skye looked at it with a prideful grin. "Well, the bracelets confirmed my thoughts. This is where we should be going..."
Just when she was going to put a paw directly to the BREAD, Tracker stopped her. He is quite good at stopping people at the right time. "Aren't you going a little too fast?"
"Tracker's right, Skye. Later on we will have to pass through doors with higher numbers. Puppies will have to..."
Skye stared at both of them, quite ashamed. "Right, it's just... I just think that if I get behind, I'll get trapped in here, or killed... Being honest, I'm a good and patient pup, but I acknowledge that I may get a little... Pumped up, sometimes. Especially in these kind of situations. I hope you understand..."
Marshall nodded, while Tracker said: "We do. No te preocupes."
After a very short while, they unanimously decided to open the door, calmly.
Marshall was the first to put his paw on the BREAD. An electronic beep resonated through the corner of the hallway. Skye followed suit. Finally, Tracker put his on the reader.
When the device was touched by Marshall's paw, a small indentation just below the BREAD opened, revealing a second device, which seemed like a keyboard with nine slots lined horizontally above it. It was quite big compared to the bracelet device, perhaps so that the tiny paws of the doggies could tap the small keys.
"So... What next?" Asked Marshall.
"Assuming we don't need any X-Pawsses..." Skye simply tapped the "Enter" key. An electronic short chime could be heard, and the doors suddenly opened.
"The doors opened!" Tracker was quite impressed, despite having predicted what would've happened.
"Q-Quick, we only have 24 seconds!" Marshall exaggerated the urgency, since they only require about three seconds to just cross the door, walking.
Despite that, those seconds felt like a lightning. The double doors slowly closed before getting locked. According to the rules, those doors would not open until those who authenticated went through the DUD.
Obviously though, they had to find it first. Team M started inspecting the room that was now opened to them. It was an almost perfect square two-stories room, with woodened parquet, woodened walls, and even woodened stairs with golden paint, something that Skye wasn't particularly welcome to see. Just to the right of the room were five dog-sized chairs arranged in a circle, around a vintage, wooden table with the shape of a circle. Just behind it was a metallic door with a frame made out of big bolts. It didn't seem to have a knob or a lock, so it might be a sliding door.
Looking directly to the left from the double doors, there was a counter with all kinds of dog food. Tracker considered they might have been placed there in case they got trapped for a very long amount of time, which was on both sides relaxing but somewhat dark. There was also another woodened door, which was half opened. The Chihuahua decided to take a look, without wincing before entering.
On the other side of the door, there was a quite dusty pantry, with shelves full of canned food, covered in spider webs. There was so much that it would probably ran out in about a year.
"So much food..." Said Tracker, with a drop of drool sliding through his lips. "Hopefully it won't be expired..."
On the main room, which seemed to be a ward or a foyer, Marshall decided to head upstairs, while Skye would be inspecting the ground floor. Upon reaching the second floor, which had a floor composed of checkerboard tiles, the Dalmatian noticed that it was just a hallway with four pair of doors, all of which were locked. However, there was something odd about two of those doors.
The door that was closest to the spotty dog had a strange black symbol written on it. It didn't look like a number, so he wondered if this was actually a Numbered Door or not. He noticed the golden keyhole on the door, with the same symbol engraved on it. That, and the lack of BREAD device told him it wasn't a Numbered Door, but a different kind of door.
The pair of doors that were on a small room on the second floor looked like those on a 1920s style elevator. A metal grating covered the elevator doors, splattered with a different kind of strange circle. However, this one was more familiar to him, as he has seen it sometimes deeply associated with "male gender".
On the other side on the wall, he found a strange white device, with a very similar look to the BREAD. Marshall assumed it was the device they were looking for.
"Pups, I think I've found the DUD!"
In about twenty-three seconds, the two pups were already next to Marshall, looking deeply at the round, white device with a bread ornament on top.
"Still going with the puns, eh... A dud bread." Skye and Marshall giggled at Tracker's 'very clever' commentary. "What are we waiting for? Let's authenticate..."
"Wait, I have a very good idea." Said Skye. "We have already gone through the door. Why would we need it to open again?"
"What are you implying, Skye?" Asked Marshall
"I'm saying we could use this in our advantage. Since we don't have to go through that door again, then we could leave it permanently shut. That way it'll be an obstacle to the others that they can't open."
"Are you saying that we should leave them behind?" Tracker wasn't fond of that idea. "Let me repeat myself: This isn't a competición."
"You would think that way would be if a team manages to get out before our team." Skye began quarreling with Tracker.
"If that's your intention, what you're going to do is just leave them to their demise. We wouldn't be able to get through door [6] until we knew they were... They were..."
"They will probably be dead by the time we get to door [6]!"
Tracker showed her some of his survival knowledge. "Dogs can hold up without water for a couple of days. You're not even considering they may find food and water just like us! Besides, why would the [0] door be an obstacle to them?"
"Argh, why won't they stop!? Then I guess I'll have to do something!" thought Marshall. He then placed his paw on the DUD.
Both talking dogs uttered in unison. "M-Marshall!"
"I had to, guys..." Suddenly, the DUD started beeping, and displayed the number "32". A second later, the number went down by one. A second later it decreased again. By the third second the circular reader was displaying the number "29".
"A-A countdown!?" Skye opened her eyes wide in surprise, and sat on the floor.
"W-we gotta hurry then! I bet something bad is going to happen to us if..."
Tracker just went on and authenticated with his paw. "Rápido, Skye."
Skye bit her lip, got up, and approached to the DUD. The Cockapoo looked to the other dogs, with their fur covered in sweat, and trembling legs. She stared at them with a small, merciful smile, and placed a paw on the reader. A short beeping chime resonated on their ears, followed by the sound of three furry bodies dropping to the floor.
"Damn it... Why didn't Y mention about a countdown on the DUD...?" cursed Marshall, looking at the woodened ceiling with flower decorative motifs.
There was silence for a couple of minutes, time which they took to relax.
The now perfectly calmed pups on Team M were now sitting on the chairs around the table from the bottom floor. However, no one talked until the Dalmatian decided to brought up a conversation.
"Hey pups, can I ask you something?" asked Marshall.
Both nodded. "Sure, go ahead" uttered Skye.
"Do you guys have any idea of who could Y be?"
There was a short silence, until Tracker spoke. "No tengo ni idea. The only thing we know is that he, or she, is a human."
"I'm wondering why Y had a different mask when they were talking about the rules." Skye mentioned that she remembered seeing him with a happy mask back at the prison cells. "Maybe it's so that he can share how he is feeling to us? Or could it be because he is thinking this is some sort of a wicked staged show?"
Marshall gave out a loud chuckle. "That'd be so insane... A staged show, and we're the actors...? That Y would be so wicked if he thinks this is a theater."
"Well, that bastard could be broadcasting this somewhere... I've seen that in mystery shows and psychological horror games." Skye apparently knew a lot about that kind of shady stuff, which made the spotty dog stare at her with a suspicious look.
Skye took a look around the ward, trying to take a gaze at any hint of hidden cameras. However, considering those things are small as ants, she thought that'd be very hard to find. Marshall considered that the sole idea of this game of death being broadcasted to any of the endless places of the world would be somewhat crazy and nonsensical.
Tracker put his head on the table, ignoring their topic of discussion, mentioning he honestly preferred thinking about what was Y trying to accomplish, rather than who he was.
"Oh, that's true. No matter who Y is, their intentions also matter." Skye patted the Chihuahua's head as a compliment. "What does he accomplish by setting this fatal game?"
Marshall deeply thought about it. He knew that there had to be some deep connection between all nine of the pups, but he couldn't think of any. Although...
"Skye... Do you happen to know me from before?"
The female dog put her paw on her muzzle, deep in thought, as her eyes scanned every inch of Marshall's face. "Somehow... I think I do know you. But I can't get to remember you... Do you?"
The Dalmatian shook his head. "Somehow, I think we were friends, way before this crazy game."
"Maybe Y used a memory loss drug on us." Theorized Tracker. "And maybe that's why that wicked story of what happened twenty-three days ago sounds so strange to us."
"It makes sense... If we were all involved in that story, that would be the only connection, between all of us. At least that we can think as of now..." Marshall was wagging his tail happily, despite the fact they were trapped. "Hopefully we'll regain our memories back."
"Then... Could that be a motive why he is doing this madness...?" Skye had a sad look on her pupils. "But no puppy did anything wrong... Right?"
There was a very long silence, that lasted like two minutes. Then Tracker brought another subject to the conversation.
"...Esa puerta... We haven't checked that door, right?" His left paw was pointing directly at the metallic door behind them. The door was bolted to the wall with big rivets, and a very small, rectangular window where the hallway leading to another room could be seen.
"Right... Although I bet it's going to be locked." Marshall was approaching the door, that suddenly opened upon close proximity. "Huh... It opened."
"So it seems." Said Skye, coughing when she noticed some strange gas coming out the door. "W-wait, what's this...?"
"G-gas...?" muttered Tracker, feeling very dizzy, his vision being very blurry.
"A trap..." The Dalmatian had trouble talking or even thinking with all the dizziness. He had almost no strength trying on supporting his own weight. "It's a... trap..."
Marshall fell unconscious first, being the one who was more exposed to the burning gas. Skye's body couldn't handle her own weight as well, flopping almost instantly to the ground. Before her eyelids couldn't shut completely, she gazed a very faint, but dark, figure beneath the dark fumes. It seemed to be tall in figure, but that was pretty much what she could discern.
She passed out fairly quickly after that, with the Chihuahua following almost immediately after.
With the three knocked out, the shady figure brought the three pups inside, despite the heated up fumes which would after about 5 minutes dissipate thanks to the ventilation system. Then, the door was firmly shut.
STATUS
(According to Team M's perspective)
Team M:
Marshall (ALIVE), Skye (ALIVE), Tracker (ALIVE)
Team R:
Rocky (?), Zuma (?), Robo-Dog (?)
Team C:
Chase (?), Rubble (?), Everest (?)